Interview: “Like a Dragon: Yakuza” Actors Ryoma Takeuchi & Kento Kaku, Executive Producer Erik Barmack

Thanks to the production team of the upcoming streaming series Like a Dragon: Yakuza and Prime Video, SEGAbits was given the opportunity to interview Series Lead Ryoma Takeuchi and Co-Star Kento Kaku, and series Executive Producer Erik Barmack.

In a round table setting, joined by fellow video game fan sites, we asked the creative team about how the project began and the challenges of portraying characters like Kazuma Kiryu (played by Ryoma Takeuchi) and Akira Nishikiyama (played by Kento Kaku). You can see their answers to our questions after the break or watch our video interview above, and stay tuned to SEGAbits for more coverage of the series as we near the October 24th release date on Prime Video!

Barry: Hello, I’m Barry and this is Patrick for SEGAbits.com. Thank you so much for this opportunity to talk to you! Erik, How did the idea to turn Like A Dragon: Yakuza into a series come about and can you share any insights into the collaboration process with SEGA and the original game developers?

Erik: When I became an independent producer three or four years ago, my career has been in international production and the North Star is always where can you find a story that is specifically local but also Global in its scope. I’m a gamer and I was playing Yakuza in my basement. My five-year-old son came down and says “What are you doing!?” and I said I’m working. Then he went up and told my wife that Daddy’s working and it looks like he’s killing me in diapers. So it was from that scene from Yakuza Kiwami 2 and I thought “This is kind of really interesting!”

The subculture of Yakuza is super interesting. For example if you’re on Twitter or any social media just like the way memes are created and I was like this world is interesting and I played the first two and then I went through another four. What I realized was that the world was vast and that the characters were real so you know especially these guys what they’re doing with Kiryu and Nishiki. They’re emotionally deep, they’re orphans, and they’re in this world where they need each other but they’re fighting each other. I thought that would make for a really interesting drama that didn’t need to change that much and then when I was putting the business hat on, it’s almost the case that half of the sales of Yakuza is in Japan and the other half is global.

There’s big audiences for the game in France, Spain, the United States, and Brazil. So I thought that was super interesting but only if we could do it authentically. That to me meant in Japanese with huge Japanese stars and a notable Japanese director. All of that was lined up and when we worked with SEGA, they were incredibly supportive and collaborative. I think because we stayed true to the core emotions of the story, it was done in Japanese, and with talent that they trust. But, we shared scripts and got notes from them and it was very collaborative process and I don’t know if you’ve noticed but yesterday they announced that they’re kind of introducing a starter pack for people who hadn’t played the games so there’s this opportunity as well with them that there’s going to be a virtuous circle of new people who haven’t played the games who are now watching the series and engaged.

Our hope is that between these great actors and directors, Amazon – which has been an unbelievable partner in SEGA – that everybody’s kind of benefiting in a way and that it’s natural that it doesn’t feel forced.

Barry: That’s great that there’s so much collaboration going on. That’s good to hear, thank you!

Patrick: Ryoma and Kento, Nishikiyama’s story is deeply intertwined with Kazuma Kiryu’s. How did you two work together to portray their complicated relationship on screen?

Ryoma: Kiryu Kazuma and Nishiki are not biological brothers but they’ve grown up together and have been trying to become sort of true siblings and flaw in the characters. The point is that they have something to supply to complete each other. They have qualities that they don’t have to each other and complete each other as being together. I think that’s sort of the necessity that they have to be together but fight at the same time and that’s the kind of nuanced relationship that they have. It’s really important that at the very bottom of it, they’re so close to each other but they’re not biologically bound together which creates that will to get together and try to be bonded even more.

Patrick: Thank you for having us. Arigato gozaimasu!